I really appreciate being given a choice of performance assessments, and will start to make this an option in my own classes as well.I selected the collage option, as I had never tried anything like this before. I had also just started reading a book of poetry by Hafiz, aSufi master from the 14th Century, who has been said to encourage "our hearts to dance"! I was especially drawn to the first two linesof his poem called "God's Bucket":
If this world Was not held in God’s bucket How could and ocean stand upside down On its head and never lose a drop?
I instantly thought of the famous "Blue Marble" shot of the Earth from space. I imagined this image (the Blue Marble) floating above anotherpicture of the Earth's ocean, as if it were rising like a moon over the horizon. The image floating behind my eyeballs was as clear as can be.However, finding images which I actually had permission to use was not nearly so much fun. I went to Flickr Creative Commons images and scrolledthrough so very many images of the "Earth from Space" (my search terms), only to be thwarted by the "All Rights Reserved" citation. Finally, at longlast, I came across a "Attribute Only" license for the "Blue Marble". Hooray!
Next, I searched for an image of the "Earth from Space" which showed the edge of our watery planet. Curses! Foiled again by the denial to use notations. At last...whew! I found just what I was looking for - an amazing soft glow image of the edge of the ocean with the black black sky I was seeking. I could get lost in this image:
Finally, I could start the fun part of this project. I opened both images in Photoshop and placed them side by side on my desktop. I then experimented with placing the Blue Marble Earth over the horizon of its mirror Earth. To do this, I used the Select tool, Copy, Paste, Edit, Transform Scale pathway and settled on this image here:
placing_the_earth_over_the_earth.png
Next, I had to blend the sky around the Blue Marble Earth so that it felt like it was really there. To accomplish this, I used the "Eyedropper" function to pick upthe color from the sky in the other image. I then used the "Airbrush" feature set at 75% opacity to do the blending. Then, I re-read the lines from Hafiz's poem,and suddenly realized that they were telling me (Words do speak to us, I think!) to flip the image upside down! I got chicken skin when I saw the results:
flipped_upside_down.png
Now, it was time to add the words of the poem. I experimented with lots of placements and fonts, and finally settled on this final image:
God's bucket FINAL version for collage project upside down.jpg
The Graphics Project
I really appreciate being given a choice of performance assessments, and will start to make this an option in my own classes as well.I selected the collage option, as I had never tried anything like this before. I had also just started reading a book of poetry by Hafiz, aSufi master from the 14th Century, who has been said to encourage "our hearts to dance"! I was especially drawn to the first two linesof his poem called "God's Bucket":If this world
Was not held in God’s bucket
How could and ocean stand upside down
On its head and never lose a drop?
I instantly thought of the famous "Blue Marble" shot of the Earth from space. I imagined this image (the Blue Marble) floating above anotherpicture of the Earth's ocean, as if it were rising like a moon over the horizon. The image floating behind my eyeballs was as clear as can be.However, finding images which I actually had permission to use was not nearly so much fun. I went to Flickr Creative Commons images and scrolledthrough so very many images of the "Earth from Space" (my search terms), only to be thwarted by the "All Rights Reserved" citation. Finally, at longlast, I came across a "Attribute Only" license for the "Blue Marble". Hooray!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/gsfc/6760135001
Next, I searched for an image of the "Earth from Space" which showed the edge of our watery planet. Curses! Foiled again by the denial to use notations. At last...whew! I found just what I was looking for - an amazing soft glow image of the edge of the ocean with the black black sky I was seeking. I could get lost in this image:
http://tinyurl.com/klj3sc3
Finally, I could start the fun part of this project. I opened both images in Photoshop and placed them side by side on my desktop. I then experimented with placing the Blue Marble Earth over the horizon of its mirror Earth. To do this, I used the Select tool, Copy, Paste, Edit, Transform Scale pathway and settled on this image here:
Next, I had to blend the sky around the Blue Marble Earth so that it felt like it was really there. To accomplish this, I used the "Eyedropper" function to pick upthe color from the sky in the other image. I then used the "Airbrush" feature set at 75% opacity to do the blending. Then, I re-read the lines from Hafiz's poem,and suddenly realized that they were telling me (Words do speak to us, I think!) to flip the image upside down! I got chicken skin when I saw the results:
Now, it was time to add the words of the poem. I experimented with lots of placements and fonts, and finally settled on this final image: